Stafford's libraries step up to recognise Holocaust Memorial Day

HOLOCAUST Memorial Day will be recognised across Staffordshire next Monday with libraries throughout the county supporting the day or remembrance.

Staffordshire County Council Cabinet Member for Children, Community and Localism, Councillor Mike Lawrence said: “Monday 27 January marks the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp.

“This is a day for us to remember the millions of people killed as a result of Nazi persecution and in more recent atrocities in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur.

“On Holocaust Memorial Day we can honour the survivors of genocide, and make a commitment to use the lessons of their experience to influence the way we live our lives today.”

All 43 of the counties libraries will take up the theme of journeys framing this year's event, with information packs and poster displays dedicated to the experience of those affected by genocide, characterised by forced journeys, journeys ending in death, journeys ending in survival, journeys of escpse, sometimes to life in new countries or even returning home to the places where neighbours may have contributed to persecution.

Comments

Those of us olld enough to remember what our mothers and fathers suffered in the Second World War will thank the County Council for commemorating this sad anniversary without forgetting more recent acrocities in Rwanda and elsewhere. The County Council is also taking a very active role in the national tributes to those who gave their lives in the Great War from 1914-18. My family originate from Leek and we have ancestors who lie in France who will never be forgotten.